The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 23, 1928, Page 6

¥ ee «defending the outpost of the world proletarian revolution. “government and the Lewis machine. Page six THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1928 THE DAILY WORKER) Published by the NATIONAL DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING ASS'N, Ine. | Daily, Except Sunday 43 First Street, New York, N. Y. Cable Addre SUBSCRIPTION RATES" By Mail (in New York only): By Mail (outside of New York): 38.00 per year $4.50 six months $6.00 per year $3.50 six months $2.50 three months. $2.00 three moriths. Phone, Orchard 1680 | “Daiwork” ‘Address and mail out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 33 First Street, New York, N. Y. ERE Fatvor _..ROBERT MINOR ~~ Aesiatant Editor. .WM. F. DUNNE Entered as second-class mail at the post-office at New York, N. ¥., under __the act of March 3, 1879. Our Red Army Ten years ago today, with the Red Guard of the proletarian revolution as its nucleus, began the organization of the Red Army —characterized by Lenin “the iron patallions of the proletariat. Today is the anniversary of the Red Army’s birth. What is today the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics, the | government of workers and peasants, was only possible because | the Bolshevik Party, steeled in the revolutionary struggle, real zed | that only the armed proletariat could assure the defense of tie revolution against its enemies. The Red Army of the proletarian revolution is not an ordinary army—it is not an armed force separate from the masses and used to hold them in subjection. It is in every sense a people’s army that defends the revolution against all forces of reaction within and without their country. un this tenth anniversary it is imperative that workers of the imperialist countries come to realize the fundamental differ- ence between the Red Army and the armies of capitalist countries. The Red Army fights for the workers and the peasants, while the imperialist armies fight against the workers and peasants of the entire world. The former is an army of liberation from the thrall- dom of capitalism, while the latter is maintained to perpetuate and extend the tyranny of imperialism. It is particularly imperative that. this Tenth Anniversary of the Birth of the Red Army be the beginning of an intensified drive on the part of the vanguard of the working class of the world against pacifist illusions. Those who, in the name of peace, denounce all armies, and all wars, lull the workers into a false | sense of security and thereby aid the imperialist war preparations. The weasel words about a “new democratic era” wherein all ques- tions will be settled around conference tables are efforts to dis- arm the workers and make them easy,'victims of the war-mongers, who, even on the eve of rigan for new and more bloody wars, use pacifist phrases to con a their conspiracies. In commemorating the Tenth Anniversary of the Red Army the proletariat of the world is not paying homage to a nationalist army. The Red Army is the army of the whole working class, It is the duty of the working class of the whole world to sup- port its Red Army and the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics ainst all imperialist attempts against it. Unlike the nationalist d imperialist armies of the world, the Red Army has tremendous rve forces in every country on the face of the earth—the class : cous proletariat of the imperialist countries and the awak- | masses of the colonial and semi-colonial countries. Coal Miners Organising for Greater Struggles The tide of militancy in the United Mine Workers is rising. More than ten and one-half months after the strike which began on April 1, 1927, and during which the coal barons and their government have piled the heaviest possible burdens upon the miners and their families, affecting all sections of the union in addition to the Pennsylvania and Ohio sections where the strug- gle is the most bitter and the persecution fiercest, the miners show a determination not only to continue the present struggle but to extend it and intensify it in every possible way. The miners know now that their union is in the deepest crisis in its history, they understand its causes, they are fixing respon- sibility, organizing to defeat the coal barons and their govern- ment, drive out the officials who have betrayed them and build a union which can resist all attacks of its enemies. Reports from every important district of the United Mine Workers bear out the above conclusions. The miners are on the march. The present officials have refused to lead them to vic- torious struggle and they are finding other leaders. The struggle itself is producing a new and militant. leadership. In Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois and in the anthracite rank and file conferences have been held. These conferences both in the number of delegates present and the fighting spirit which marked | | them show that the rank and file does not intend to allow Pres- ident Lewis and his district machines to surrender them to the coal barons. The Save the Union committees which have been elected by these conferences are composed of trusted rank and file militants, former district, sub-distriet and local union officials who either have been always in opposition to the Lewis machine or have broken with it entirely. The program adopted by these conferences is not new with the exception that it provides for an open challenge to the Lewis ! machine and puts the question of the organization and main- | tenance of the union at all costs first on the order of businpss. its other essentials the program contains those demands for which | the left wing has been fighting for years. The program, with its emphasis on the organization of the non-union fields, the spread- ing of the strike, one national agreement for the bituminous and the anthracite, abolition of corruption in the union and a labor party, would, if adopted and applied three years ago, Have pre- vented the present crisis and confronted the coal barons with a union embracing at least 600,000 of the 800,000 coal miners on the continent. The rank and file of the miners are preparing for a national conference to centralize the struggle against the coal barons, their After ten and one-half | months of terrific struggle, as developments in the anthracite in- dicate, ever larger forces are mobilizing to save the union, defeat , the coal barons and their allies inside the union. Important as the struggle has been still more important struggles lie close ‘ahead. For the whole working class the battle of. the miners has the deepest significance. It is hardly too much In} LEWIS MUST GO! to the murder of honest workers loyal to the union. The bureaucrats must go! must control the mine workers’ union! Murder must stop! Reactionary bureaucrats desperately struggling to keep control of the United Mine Workers’ Union for the benefit of the employers resort Lewis and Cappelini must be By Fred Ellis kicked out! The mine workers Workers Make Up Red Army, Figures Reveal The figures below deal with the so- cial composition of the Red Army officers, showing that more than 90 per cent of them come from peasants and workers 2s contrasted with the old czarist army ané all the imperi- alist forces. The chart below shows the military expenditures for the de- fense of the Scvet Union as com- pared with the expenditures by these countries preparing to war ou the Workers Republic: Red Army Of- ficers Come Czarist Army Of- ~ ficers Come From: From: Peasants 54% Nobility 51% Workers 87% Bourgeoisie 41% Employes 9% Peasants 8% Soldiers Military Ex- Per 10,000 pense Per Country Population Inhabitant Soviet Union ......41 2.87 rubles Finland. j..<j.josss0a90" 7.00 1" Roumania .......-.-95 5.30 “ Poland -98 11.00 “ Latvia 652 “ Esthonia .......-- 126: O00'54* “Is it not natural that the Youth predominates in our revolutionary party? We are the Party of the future, and the future belongs to the Youth. We are a Party of in- novators, and the Youth always readily follows innovators. We are a Party of self-sacrificing struggle, struggle against everything that is old and decayed, and the Youth will always be the first ones to enter a struggle of self-sacrifice. —F. ENGELS. * * ie February revolution of 1917 aroused broad sections of the work- ing youth. The young workers, the mass of them, rallied to the Bolshe- vik banners. In the report of the “Pravda” (May 8, 1917) on the May Day demonstration, we read: “Regi- ments of workers marched to the Marsovo Polye from early morning. The young factory workers constitut- ed the vanguard. They had a plat- form (a motor lorry) on the field. On the platform there was a fiery young speaker. He delivered a fiery speech on the significance of May First and the futility of imperialist war. The young speakers replaced each other under stormy applause.” Struggle Commences. A struggle was going on in the ranks of the youth beginning with the February revolution up to the October revolution. In that struggle the Belshevik wing soon achieved the vpper hand in Petrograd. The Social- ist Young Workers’ League, organized on August 18th, 1917, sent its greet- * ing. In Moscow, the youth organ- ized themselves under the auspices of the Moscow Bolshevik Committee and were entirely under its leadership. We had information that young workers’ organizations were organized in the Urals, in the Ukraine, Rostov, Baku, ete., and had entered the strug- gle under the Bolshevik banners against the nobility and the capital- ists. The young workers were prepared for the revolutionary insurrection in all large industrial centres together with the other workers. Active in Red Guards. In the Red Guard detachments, they took an active part. In Petrograd, 63 young workers out of 370 working in the “Novy Piervian- inen” Works joined the Red Guards. In the “Novy Liessner” Works, 49 out of a total of 267 joined the Red Guards. The executive committees of the youth organizations were actively engaged in organizing Red Guard de- tachments. The youth played such an important role in the Red Guard de- tachments that Lenin said in a let- ter to the Central Committee before the October upheaval, in which he gives instructions re the organiza- tion of the insurrection, that it is @ecessary “to bring forward the staunchest elements of our fighting detachments and the working youth {Lenin’s emphasis) and the best ele- ments among the sailors, and to or- ganize them into small sections for the occupation of the most important positions, for participation every- where and in all most important oper- ings to Lenin who was then in hid- > The International Women’s Day Committee, composed of representa- tives of organizations of working women in New York City have issued a call for a demonstration to be held at Central Opera House on Sunday, March 4, at 2 p. m. The call is signed by the following among others: Rose Wortis, Dress- makers’ Union; Ellen Dawson, Pas- saic Textile Workers Union; Lena |Greenberg, Furriers Union; Clarina Michelson, Miners’ Relief Conference; Ann Washington Craton, Sylvia Juliet Stuart Poyntz, Workers Par ty; Pauline Royce, Harriet Silver- man, American Women’s Delegation to Soviet Russia; Ella Wolfe, Work- ers School; Rose Baron, International Labor Defense; Marion Emerson, In- ternational Workers Aid; Ray. Rago- zin, Women’s Conference for Miners’ Relief; Regina Lilienstein, United {Council of Working Wome |Brusila, Finnish Worki.g Women’s Clubs; | Women’s Clubs. The text of the call follows: To the Working Women of New York City: International Women’s Day on March 8 is an occasion upon which the working women of. various coun- tries meet to discuss their condition. of life and work, to formulate a pro gram for their betterment and to demonstra’e the sentiments of inter- national friendship and _ solidarity that bind them to working women | of other countries. | working class. It is the task of our party decisive force drawing together that the life of the labor movement hinges upon the vic- | fight st not be confined to the. coal labor movement which must be Bleeker, Millinery Workers Union; | n; Regina’ Helen Yeskevich, Lithuanian’ he miners are on the march and decisive bat ations.” Thus the youth was the staunchest and most progressive element in the Red Guards. The Moscow Youth League also took most serious part in the October bat- tles. After October. After the October victory the youth continued in the service of the Red Guards in defence of the young Soy- iet republic. The aristocracy and the bourgeoisie did not immediately be- come reconciled to the loss of their land, factories, banks and their state power. With the help of British, American and French imperialism, and supported by the Mensheviks and social revolutionaries, they sueceeded in all parts of Soviet Russia in or- ganizing counter revolutionary bands against the Soviet government. The Soviet government replied to this menace by organizing the Red Army, which grew to the extent that the danger increased, and by 1920 had 5,300,000 in its ranks. The Y. C. L. took a direct part in the organization of the Red Army and its battles by organizing mass mobilizations among the members, by means of carrying on extensive organizatjén, by means of organizing the Soviet rear, and by means of undermining the ranks of the enemy through underground work in the enemy’s rear. Mobilization. The first all-Russian mobilization of the youth took place in connection with the menace on the Eastern front (April, 1919). The Petrograd Y. C. L. organization sent 20 per cent of its members. The organizations in towns near the front sent in many cases their entire membership. At the same time those Y. C. L. members who re- mained in the rear learned the use of arms in’ order to have experience in case of another mobilization. The strenuous efforts of the Soviet repub- Me on the Eastern front had their results. The Red forces started an offensive. The press reported that “exclusively young Communists are engaged on the northern flank of the offensive at the Eastern front. Many sections have almost one-half consist- ing of young Communists in their ranks.” The mobilization of forces for the Eastern front enabled the Southern counter-revolutionaries under Denik- in’s leadership to organize* and to start an offensive. The enefy reach- ed Orel and menaced Moscow. Jointly with all toilers who exerted their ef- forts in the struggle, the Young Com- munist League took the most active part in organizing the defence. A second mobilization took place. The Orel, Tula, Voronezh, Tombov, Ria-| zansk, and Loluzsk organizations mobilized 80 per cent of their mem- | bers, Congress Acts. The Second Congress of the Y. C. L. (1918) on deciding to mobilize its membership gave clear instructions concerning the participation of the Y. C. Leorganization and members in the formation of the Red Army. The most important points of that decision were: (a) that members of the Y. C. L. now in the army must show an example as staunch revolutionary fighters: (b) the Y. C. L. advances the staunchest members of the organi- Young Communists and the Red Army zation to official posts; (c) the Y. C. L. carries on in the army agita- tional and propaganda work; (d) the Y. C. L. mobilizes its girl members to the front as Red Cross nurses, etc. The second mcbilization was ~suc- cessful, and the decision of the con- gress was enthusiastically carried out by the Y. C. L. organizations. The daily papers reported: “In Ekaterinoburg when the delegates returned from the Second Congress and announced the mobilization, the enthusiasm of the youth was beyond description. The nuclei were anxious te get to the front. Boys and girls 14 years of age came to the Commis- sary of War and demanded to be sent to the front. The mobilization brought in three thousand young workers ati an average age of 16 years and ex- perienced Red Cross nurses.” We read in the “Pravda” of that time the following communications: “April 25—Skopin, Rianzansk Gu- kernia. The League is going to the front in full force. “May 1—The Tsaritzin organiza- tion left for the front in full force. _“The Novgorod organization has been entirely mobilized. Reports are coming in about the mobilization in Tver, Kursk, the Ukraine, ete.” The .Ukrainian League mobilized 2,600 members in the autumn of 1928 in the struggle against the remnants of the Southern counter-revolutionary forces which, after Denikin’s defeat, revived again under Wrangel’s lead- ership with the purpose of drawing away some of the military forces of Soviet Russia. (To Be Continued). ————? The women workers of New York should be among the first to partici pate in such a celebraiion on Inter- national Women’s Day. The hun. dreds of thousands of women toilin in the factories, shops, stores ai offices of this city should on Intc: national Woman’s Day take thoug for themselves, for their sisters i other countries and for their brother of the working elass struggling fo: a livelihood in the miserable condi tions under which workers must toi. \ today. Creat Wealth, Great Poverty. New Vork City is the greatest conter of wealth and luxury today lu wue Woriu, put the workers of tris ciy, and gspecially the working women of New York, are not getting enough to keep body and soul to- gether. The great army of girls wh. work in offices in this city are sink- ing down into a terrible condition of underpayment and overwork. Lit le better than the machines work cn all day long, they strain every nerve to produce speedy work, and_ sacrifice their you h and strength to the great god Business. The wages of clerical workers are sinking lower and lower every year with the recruiting of tens of thous- ands of new workers fiom the schools. Helpless, defenseless, un- organized, ‘heir condition is one of growing misery. Suffering in Needle “rades. The tens of thousands of women who work in the needle trades, dress- makers, furriers, milliners and others who have put up a brave fight for mining industry but be broadened to include all the forces of the to engage in this struggle as a all sections of the working class into a proletarian army forming the base of the militant mass built. certain. years for better conditions and trade union organization, are suffering to- day. from a bitter attack of the em- ployers. Their hard-won standards * wages and hours, the fruit of many tter struggles, are under the em- ‘overs’ fire The bosses, taking ad- ntagé of the anarchic conditions 1 the industry and the internal ruggle in the union, are outdoing ‘ch other in reducing wages and igthening hours. And general un- mploymerft makes the lot of the oman needle worker still worse, vhile poliee clubs, injunctions, and ‘ail sentences meet her on the picket ine when she goes on strike to im-| »rove her conditions. The waitresses of New York work ander nerve-wrecking conditions which leave them a physical wreck in a few years. They must eke out a liv- ing with uncertain tips and work ir- regular hours without places of rest. Textile Victims. The women textile workers in the towns around New York have for years been the victims of a terrible system of exploitaion, More and more work is forced upon them year by year, but their wages go down. More looms to run, more spindles ‘o tend, more hours to work, low wagcs and unemployment, this is the lot of ihe woman textile worker in Passaic, Paterson and other centers. Scores of lesser industries in and around New York use up the strength and vitality of working women, over- work them and pay them starva ion wages,—box-making, cigarette fac- tories, flower and feather ‘shops, brush factories, candy factories, nitting mills. The great department stores of New York: Macy’s, Altman’s, Gim- shousand of women under the worst condi'ions—not even a living wage. Unhealthy conditions of work, stand. ing all day long, un r bias fines and 3 | unbearable. |and join fin the labor struggle today hel’s, Wanamaker’s, employ tens of | {life of the department store worker High Rents. High rents prevent the woman worker from having a real home. The high cost of clothing eats a hole in her tiny income until there is little left for food, and the subway rush adds two hours to the working day and ruins her health and nerves! The condition of women wage earners in |New York is a terrible one in which they are hardly organized to ‘fight the employers, the landlords and the traction interes!s. _ And the working woman in the home! Often she works in the shop as well and has the problem of house- work and motherhood as well as the shop. Or she tries to add to the family income with the slavery o1 home work. She struggles to make ends meet and find food, clothing and shelter for her little ones in the face of low wages, high rents, strikes and unemployment. Her husband’s strug- gle in-the shop is her struggle, and she takes her place by his side on the picket line. Her own struggle as a housewife against the high cost of living, against bad housing and bad school conditions, she carries on thru her own organizations, thru housewives’ councils, mothers leagues, working women’s clubs. The working woman in the home must organize as well as the woman in the shop. Here in New York there are, too, those other women, the wives of Wall Street, who spend a million dollars for a pearl necklace while their sis- ters slave, who while away their time at Palm Beach and Newport, whose husbands are the bankers of Amer- ica—stretching out greedy hands to- day over the whole world trying to dominate all other countries by the power of their gold—Mexico, Nicara- |gua, China, which are fighting for | Vip ig are the victim: “of } Call for International Women’s Day Is Issued these “leading citizens” are today preparing a new and more terrible war than humanity has ever known. And they are today preparing to at- tack Soviet Russia because the Rus- sian workers have taken over the government and the industries and are building a new cooperative so- ciety free from the domination of Wall Street. These parasites of Wall Street, men and women, are a danger to the working class and to the wom- en and children who are being drawn into the new war. The working wom- en of New York in the workshop and in the home must stand together with all other working women of America from New York to San Francisco to protect themselves and their children against the danger of war. On In- ternational Women’s Day they must send a greeting to the working wom- en of all other countries who like themselves are toiling and suffering, bearing their feeling of friendship and comradeship, and their determin- ation to join with them in the labor struggle against the exploiters in all _ countries. They must stand with the working women of Soviet Russia who are toiling in the factories and on the farm to build, a better society for themselves and their children, The. women workers must organize to fight the exploitation of the em- ployers, the landlord and the traction interests, to protect herself and her brother worker against injunctions, anti-labor laws and police clubs, to fight the international war-trust of Wall Street and its armies and navies. Women workers must demand: Better working and living condi- tions. i Work or wages for unemployed working women, Workers’ Insurance, motherhood insurance. | Better homes and better schools! Abolition of child labor! - Down with war including